MINSK, 7 July (BelTA) - The Belarusian Embassy in Ukraine has sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expressing serious concerns over the lack of effort to ensure its security, BelTA has learned from the embassy.
"Despite the repeated requests to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to beef up security of the Belarusian diplomatic mission, radicals from among Ukrainian citizens attacked the authorized rally of the Belarusian diaspora near the Belarusian Embassy on 7 July 2021. As a result a number of people, including representatives of the National Guard of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, suffered injuries of varying degrees of severity: a closed craniocerebral injury, a closed chest injury, irritation of eyes and respiratory tract as a result of the use of a pepper spray canister,” the embassy said.
The attackers – two citizens of Ukraine – were detained. “The circumstances of the incident allow us to conclude that it was a deliberate and planned attack. The embassy lodges a strong protest and urges Ukrainian law enforcement agencies to launch an investigation into the incident, give an appropriate legal assessment to the situation, punish the culprits accordingly, and calls on Ukraine to take adequate measures to prevent such incidents near the Belarusian embassy in the future,” the embassy stressed.
Belarus views this incident as a direct threat to the safety of the Belarusian Embassy in Ukraine and its employees. “In line with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 18 April 1961, the embassy urges Ukraine to enforce public order and ensure security in the territory adjacent to the Belarusian Embassy in Kiev as well as to take measures to prevent various provocations and illegal anti-Belarus activities in Ukraine that take place more and more often and become more and more radicalized,” the embassy added.
